Wilson Sandura

categories:

Wilson Runyararo Sandura was a lawyer, Regional Magistrate, High Court Judge and Supreme Court Justice of
Zimbabwe. He was the first black regional magistrate, as well as the first black Judge President of the High
Court. He died at age 74, on 11 March 2015 after being involved in a car accident on 28 February 2015.[1]

Contents

Legal career

On October 24 1980, Sandura was sworn in as the country’s first black regional magistrate at the
Harare Magistrates Court.[2] Sandura
was appointed as a high court judge in 1983. In the following year, in 1984, he was fast-tracked to become
Judge President and and head of the High Court, as the newly independent nation sought to redefine its institutions.[3]

In 1989 Justice Sandura became a household name in Zimbabwe after presiding over the Sandura Commission that investigated the Willowgate Scandal that probed the abuse of office by government officials in acquiring motor vehicles through Willowvale Mazda Motor Industries at concessionary rates before selling them at a premium price for profit.[4]
The high profile case claimed the scalps of several ministers. For more than seven weeks, the Sandura Commission called 72 witnesses, including six Cabinet ministers, two deputy ministers, three members of Parliament, two senior army officers and 40 directors and managers of private companies.[4] During the hearings some Cabinet ministers threatened commissioners, but Justice Sandura stood his ground and threatened two of them with arrest.[4]

Sandura was elevated to the Supreme Court, in 1998. His replacement as Judge President was Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku.
[3] When Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay retired in 2001, Sandura was passed over for promotion with the honour going to Sandura's subordinate Godfrey Chidyausiku.[3]Sandura served as a Supreme Court justice, until the end, when he retired at the age of 70, as required by the constitution in 2011.[3]

Death

On February 28, 2015, Sandura was involved in a car accident near his rural homestead in Madziva. On that very day he was rushed to Mt Darwin Hospital before being referred to Shashe Hospital in Bindura. Later on that day, he was transferred to the Avenues Clinic where he was admitted until March 11, 2015, when he died due to the injuries sustained in the car accident.[5] He was buried at his rural home in Madziwa, Mashonaland Central province on March 14, 2016.[6]